protective gear questions...and a bauer vs reebok question

[mjpisat 36]

Thought I would try to get all my questions answered here.

I currently have Bauer supreme one 40 shoulder pads, vapor x3.0 pants, x3.0 shin guards. Thinking about upgrading these. Does the next level up (supreme one 60 shoulder, 5.0 pants and shins) offer that much protection over three or should i move up to the 80 and x7.0?

how do you determine the level of protection you need? I'm just a rec player probably life D leaguer but there are always a few ringers with good shots.

if I'm fine with what I got, should I stick with the same lines, but move up to a model with better protection?

What is the difference between Bauer Vapor pants and Reebok pants?

Also thinking about vapor or supreme gloves. I was a little surprised to see the supreme gloves are tighter. i thought everything with the supreme line was supposed to be looser.

Thanks

[Chadd 916]

Do you feel that the gear you have is inadequate in any way? If so, then upgrade that piece to something that offers improvements where you want/need them. If you haven't had issues with that specific gear, or others haven't had issues, throw the upgrade money into better sticks, gloves or other "sexy" stuff. I'm a big believer in being relatively well protected at a beer league level, but we have some meatheads in our league that will hack or chop when you least expect it. In a mellow league, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

[bagsbie 8]

I would like to add to the above from personal experience. I came back on ice after a prolong break and did the same, i.e. purchased gear on a low end of the spectrum and worked my way up towards more protective, comfortable and adequately more expensive of course... it is how it is. As your game improves, so is the competition against whom you play, speed increases, shot get harder, etc. I found that the top two pieces I had to upgrade nearly right away were my gloves and shin pads - my hands and legs were getting the brunt of the abuse. The only original piece of equipment that I still have after a few years back on the ice is my CCM helmet.

[mjpisat 36]

i worry more about getting hit with a puck.

also, not sure if the pants have too much padding. had our first game the other night and some dude broke his tail bone in a fall. i guess that's what kicked this off for me.

[Chadd 916]

i worry more about getting hit with a puck.

also, not sure if the pants have too much padding. had our first game the other night and some dude broke his tail bone in a fall. i guess that's what kicked this off for me.

I don't think any pant has "too much" padding. To me, that would be so much that it prevents you from moving normally. More protective pants are generally going to be heavier and be a little stiffer until you break them in. When it comes to pants, it's hard to go wrong with a Tackla 9000. Pro level protection and relatively light. Once they're broken in, you don't even notice them

[beerleaguecaptain 1004]

I agree with Chad.. I had top level stop for a long time and mostly still do. I am also a D level player in a beer league. Occaisionally things get fiesty. Recently I downgraded on shoulder pads because I found my other stuff so big and bulky and I'm happy about the change.

That being said, I don't think the move your are looking at affords you a great deal more protection. My advice is to take your time and upgrade one piece at a time. I do like the better pants... thats a place to start. If I were you I'd look at the TotalOne of 7.0 pants. Reebok is very different in cut and design at the top level. Go to your LHS... shop around... read the boards. Its fun!

[Stewie 721]

I feel each manufacturer provides suitable protection level alternatives, its mostly a matter of fit and some performance advantages, and thats going to depend vastly on the person. I like CCM mostly because it fits me the best. I use the fit07 and fit05 series gear mostly, in c/d league play. i feel this line gives me adequate protection, and thankfully to date in 23 years of playing hockey i have still to get an injury not involving my teeth. I will get a few more bruises in some of my less protective spots, but feel like with no-check i am protected at a good level.

When i was younger and played a more physical game, i opted for protection. I usually got the most tank like pieces i could. Note that doing such, increasing the level of protection, often also increases the weight, and restricts motion, but this is not always true with some of the more modern lines of equipment. Pants are the one piece i have thats fit 07, as i like the added thigh protection because i like to block passes/shots, and i like the extra tailbone protection.

[Vet88 674]

If it doesn't hurt then you could say your level of protection is sufficient however I always recommend players to upgrade to better equipment regardless of what league they are playing, you never know when you are going to need it. You start skating a little faster, hit the boards a little harder then pop goes the knee, 3 weeks off ice.

Now that you have worked out the sizes of stuff you wear, take your time and start looking around. See what your team mates are wearing, try them on for fit if they will let you. Look here and on eBay for new gear that is from previous top model lines over the last 3 years eg S17, S19, one90, one95, 9k to name just a few. Over time you can outfit yourself with excellent gear for a good price and if you don't like what you purchased you can always resell it and carry on looking.

As to gloves, my experience is that the supreme line (eg one95's) fits tighter than the vapour line (eg xxxx, X60) although I can't comment on gloves from recent lines (Nexus, TotalOne) as I haven't had the luxury of trying them on yet (Totalone gloves on the way).

[mjpisat 36]

I don't think any pant has "too much" padding. To me, that would be so much that it prevents you from moving normally. More protective pants are generally going to be heavier and be a little stiffer until you break them in. When it comes to pants, it's hard to go wrong with a Tackla 9000. Pro level protection and relatively light. Once they're broken in, you don't even notice them

I totally messed that up. i meant that I don't think the Vapor x3.0 pants don't have very much padding and I was thinking about upgrading them to x5.0 or 7.0. My main question was are you going to much more protection with the 5 or would it be worth going up to 7. Was also looking as to how the reebok pants fit vs the vapor. looks like bauer supreme and reebok are going to be more similar.

[Vuronov 18]

For what it's worth, I wear Tackla 5000 Pros and in two games last week I caught an edge while skating backwards at the blue line, with no one around, and did a total butt crash onto the ice, legs up and nothing but butt straight down. Thanks to those pants, I popped up each time, embarrassed for sure, but not feeling a bit of soreness and just kept on playing.

[alekgrongstad 0]

As far as the pants fitting goes, the Bauer is a slimmer fit pant as opposed to reebok being slightly wider. Along with that, the reebok is lower cut on the top than the Bauer would be, I also seem to find that reebok pants are more form fitting and follow your contours a little more than other pants. But length is generally very comparable between the two. Hope that helps a bit.

[goodguy 7]

Just moving a litle higher in pants should offer much better protection. For example, the Bauer 50 series pants is missing too much padding from the upper thigh and hip bone area in front (think blocking shots with your muscle only). The Bauer 80 series offers much more protection but not sacrificing movement and weight (they also come in long versions if you need an extra 1-2" of length). The highest end bauers were too padded and bulky and restricted movement. Definitely grab a pair and feel the area you are currently getting bruises. Takla pants seem too 1990 to me and don't seem to have much flexibility. CCM pants are a weird fit and you need to have just the right fit for those.

You might want to look at the CCM 4 roll pro II gloves over the Bauer Supremes - while bauer makes good gloves i am loving my new CCM 4 Roll pro 2's.

Shoulders and elbows are Eastons - they have come a long way with their EQ pads and I like them alot. Check out the EQ50 shoulders as they are super protective and fit great - they are like tanks. but the Easton Stealth and RS line of pads do not appeal to me. The ones with with the foam caps (like a bike helmet material) would break upon first big hit IMO.

The new CCM foam Crazy light pads just don't sit well and seem cheap to me. The Reebok 11k shoulder caps look like you are wearing sea turtle shells on your shoulders. The APX is too expensive and not super protective IMO. Not a big fan of Reeboks shirt with pads and shoulderpad option as it would be a pain to wash the padded shirt so often.

Warrior franchise shin pads.

Reebok 11K helmet for me. Warrior Krown looks like an old round Jofa helmet and the mechanism is hard to adjust and would probably break. Bauer Re-Akt is really nice but way too expensive. Easton 700 is nice but worried the little bike helmet like clips inside wouldn't last. CCM seems to have forgotten about helmets this year. M11 Pro is really nice too but they only slimlined it and didn't really make many improvements over m11 (but still very nice). I probably would have gone with the M11 pro if it weren't just a slightly slimlined M11. Loving my Reebok 11K helmet though.